provides a comprehensive range of valuation consulting services for compliance with ASC 718 (FAS 123R), SEC Staff Accounting Bulletin 107/110 and PCAOB ESO Guidance. 1) Fair Value of Share-Based Payment (SBP) Awards A. Service Condition Awards 1. Employee Stock Option (ESO) 2. Vesting a. Cliff b. Graded 3. Non-vanilla structure a. Stepped strike b. Modified payoff B. Market Condition Awards 1. Option or Restricted Stock 2. Total Shareholder Return (TSR) 3. Performance Price Target (PPT) 4. Capped Payoff 5. Indexed option 6. Out-performance option C. Performance Condition Awards 1. EPS target or company performance metric D. Employee Stock Purchase Plan (ESPP) E. Stock Appreciation Rights (SAR) F. Estimating assumptions for valuation model 2) Valuation Methods A. Black-Scholes-Merton (European) B. Cox-Ross-Rubinstein Binomial (traded options) C. Lattice (trinomial) with Exercise Behavior overlay D. Monte Carlo Simulation (multiple assumptions and unique features) E. Gram-Charlier (non-normal returns) F. Ingersoll (utility value of executive awards) G. Warrant valuation model (dilution effect) 3) Valuation Software A. FinTools XL functions B. Custom templates C. Custom functions D. Custom development 4) SBP Preliminary Analysis A. Review terms and conditions of award contract B. Send questionnaire to Company for award details C. Send MITI award description to Company for confirmation D. Review recent 10-K and/or 10-Q SBP footnote disclosures E. Generate Visual Volatility and Visual Time Series F. Review Company press releases and industry news G. Review Company dividend announcements 5) Risk-Free Interest Rate A. Conversion of bond equivalent yield to continuous rate B. Interpolation of rates to match the expected term C. Calculation of implied forward rates by one year intervals D. LIBOR and swap rates for implied volatility E. Convert Constant Maturity Treasury yield curve to a zero-coupon equivalent Page 1 of 5
6) Expected Dividends A. Collect historical dividend payments 1. Calculate current yield 2. Forecast future dividends using trend analysis B. Use Company news release for future dividends C. Use expected dividends assumption of zero for dividend protected awards 7) Price Data Validation and Adjustments A. Collect price data from three independent sources 1. Daily, weekly and monthly prices B. Audit data using validation process C. Price adjustments to Close prices 1. Stock splits 2. Cash dividends 3. Adjustment methods: a. Yahoo! Finance b. FASB 8) Expected Volatility A. Volatility Analysis 1. Historical Volatility a. Price Data Validation and Adjustments b. Calculate the historical volatility using daily, weekly and monthly prices c. Return basis: fixed intervals or calendar time d. Contractual term e. Expected term f. Horizon period g. Remaining term h. Periodic intervals with mirror or shift to the future i. Mean-reversion j. Exponentially weighted moving average (EWMA) k. Visual volatility using moving average method l. Unique period adjustments by applying deemphasizing factors 2. Implied Volatility a. Analysis of exchange traded options (i) Short-dated and long-dated expirations (ii) In-the-money and out-of-the money options (iii) SAB 107 at-the-money interpolated equivalent b. Other traded derivatives (i) Warrants (ii) Over-the-counter derivatives (iii) Embedded derivatives 3. Volatility Term Structure B. Time Series Analysis 1. Test Black-Scholes-Merton assumption for normal return distribution and independence a. Skewness, Kurtosis, Autocorrelation, Lomb 2. Identification of Outliers using six statistical methods to highlight: a. Unique periods of extreme volatility b. Time periods responsible for non-normal returns 3. Qualitative analysis of data identified by the Outlier statistical tests 4. Calculate Adjusted Historical Volatility based on unique period adjustments Page 2 of 5
C. Peer Group Analysis (private company valuation) 1. Identify peer companies a. Equal weight for each company b. Unique weights for each company 2. Estimate peer expected volatility based on historical volatility and/or implied volatility D. Peer or Comparability Group Analysis (TSR valuation) 1. Estimate volatility based on historical volatility and/or implied volatility for each company 2. Combined Historical and Implied Volatility E. Expected Volatility Analysis 1. Weighted scenarios based on Historical, Implied and Peer Volatilities 2. Volatility Term Structure 3. Blended Historical Volatility 4. Combined Historical and Implied Volatility 9) Expected Term A. SEC Staff Accounting Bulletin 107 Simplified Method B. Ratio of time from vesting date to contractual term date C. Average Time Outstanding 1. Based on historical option transactions to date plus projected transactions a. Exercises b. Forfeitures (post-vest) c. Expires 2. Implied Expected Term using Black-Scholes-Merton D. Suboptimal Exercise Factor 1. Based on historical exercise multiple plus projected transactions E. Implied Expected Term 1. Derived from Lattice Model 2. Derived from Monte Carlo Method F. Derived service period plus an adjustment factor may be used for certain market condition awards 10) Expected Forfeitures A. Expected Forfeitures based on historical transactions plus qualitative factors 1. Annual employee turnover rate a. Companywide or by designated groups b. Applied to vesting schedule to arrive at the overall estimated forfeitures B. Pre-Vest Forfeitures from historical transactions 1. Required for compensation cost true-up at each vesting date C. Post-Vest Forfeiture Rate from historical transactions 1. Required for Fair Value calculations using Lattice and Monte Carlo valuation methods 11) Price Target Valuation A. Market Condition Award 1. Performance price target a. Consecutive days at or above a target price b. Multiple days at or above a target price c. Consecutive days at or above an average target price d. One touch Up and In target 2. The Fair Value is calculated using Monte Carlo simulation, the Lattice method and/or a Closed-form solution 3. The Derived Service Period is calculated using Monte Carlo simulation a. Risk-Neutral method b. Real World method Page 3 of 5
B. Probability of an Expected Stock Price on a Given Date 1. Below a specified value 2. Above a specified value 3. Between two specified values 12) TSR Valuation A. Market Condition Award as defined in ASC 718 B. Total Shareholder Return (TSR) valuation based on the performance of a company relative to a peer group, comparative group or industry sector C. Valuation method is Monte Carlo simulation 1. Stock price paths are simulated on a daily basis based on these factors: a. Expected volatility b. Risk-free interest rate or growth rate c. Correlation matrix or array including each of the companies in peer group d. Dividend treatment (i) With reinvestment of dividends in stock (ii) With reinvestment of div at risk-free rate (iii) Without reinvestment of dividends 2. The TSR ranking of the company will be estimated over a defined performance period, and the corresponding payoff incorporated into the fair value calculation D. Valuation techniques 1. Risk Neutral a. Assumes that hedging and selling is allowed b. Discount payoff at the risk-free rate 2. Real World a. Assumes that hedging and selling is not allowed b. Growth rate of each company is estimated (i) Historical growth rate or trend (ii) Adjusted CAPM method E. Assumption estimation 1. Expected Volatility 2. Expected Correlation 3. Expected Dividends 4. Equivalent Shares 5. Expected Growth Rates 6. The Sensitivity of the assumptions will be tested 13) Expected Correlation A. Price Data Validation and Adjustments B. Calculate the historical return correlation using daily, weekly and monthly prices 1. Company by Peer Matrix a. Cholesky decomposition 2. Company by Peer Array a. Correlation of Company to each Peer 3. Sensitivity analysis a. Contractual and/or Remaining Term b. Horizon Periods C. Simulate stock price movements based on the historical or estimated correlation matrix 1. Historical correlation matrix or array a. Peer Group b. Comparability Group 2. No correlation sensitivity (assume a factor of 0) 3. Perfect correlation sensitivity (assume a factor of 1) 4. Fixed correlation factor (elementary approach) Page 4 of 5
14) Expected Growth Rate of Company A. Growth Rate resulting from Capital Appreciation and Dividend Income B. Historical return calculations C. Beta analysis 1. Capital Asset Portfolio Model (CAPM) growth rate estimates 2. Adjusted CAPM growth rate estimates 15) Cost Attribution Calculations A. Monthly, quarterly, or annual expense B. Daily or monthly attribution technique C. Straight-line or accelerated method D. Reported expense tabulation from prior periods E. Implied forfeiture rate calculation based on actual and expected forfeitures F. Minimum cost and floor adjustments G. Current period adjustment for expense catch-up H. Type of awards: ESO, TSR, PPT, ESPP, SAR, Restricted Stock, Phantom Stock, Performance Condition 16) Financial Reporting Services A. Footnote disclosure of Fair Value calculation method B. Footnote disclosure of assumptions for valuation model C. Sensitivity analysis of the assumptions D. Stock option activity report E. Diluted EPS calculation F. APIC deferred tax calculation G. Mark-to-market Fair Value calculation H. ESO hedging program 17) Plan Design and Review A. Review the terms of the award contract B. Provide summary description of the award contract C. Make suggestions for plan enhancement D. Best practices comparative review 18) Share-based Payment Training Seminar A. Onsite custom training seminar B. Online training webinars Page 5 of 5